A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of older people, senior citizens, or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as care homes, skilled nursing facilities (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to indicate whether the institutions are public or private, and whether they provide mostly assisted living, or nursing care and emergency medical care. Nursing homes are used by people who do not need to be in a hospital, but cannot be cared for at home. The nursing home facility nurses have the responsibilities of caring for the patients' medical needs and also the responsibility of being in charge of other employees, depending on their ranks. Most nursing homes have nursing aides and skilled nurses on hand 24 hours a day.
An assisted living residence or assisted living facility (ALF) is a housing facility for people with disabilities or for adults who cannot or who choose not to live independently. The term is popular in the United States, but the setting is similar to a retirement home, in the sense that facilities provide a group living environment and typically cater to an older adult population. There is also Caribbean assisted living, which offers a similar service in a resort-like environment.
Elderly care, or simply eldercare, serves the needs of old adults. It encompasses assisted living, adult daycare, long-term care, nursing homes, hospice care, and home care.
A retirement community is a residential community or housing complex designed for older adults who are generally able to care for themselves; however, assistance from home care agencies is allowed in some communities, and activities and socialization opportunities are often provided. Some of the characteristics typically are: the community must be age-restricted or age-qualified, residents must be partially or fully retired, and the community offers shared services or amenities.
Chartwell Retirement Residences is the largest provider of seniors' housing in Canada, serving over 25,000 residents across Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia. Chartwell offers a range of seniors housing communities, from independent living to assisted living.
AmeriCorps is an independent agency of the United States government that engages more than five million Americans in service through a variety of stipended volunteer work programs in many sectors. These programs include AmeriCorps VISTA, AmeriCorps NCCC, AmeriCorps State and National, AmeriCorps Seniors, the Volunteer Generation Fund, and other national service initiatives. The agency's mission is "to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering." It was created by the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993. In September 2020, the agency rebranded itself as AmeriCorps, although its official name is unchanged.
A group home, congregate living facility, care home, adult family home, etc., is a structured and supervised residence model that provides assisted living and medical care for those with complex health needs. Traditionally, the model has been used for children or young people who cannot live with their families or afford their own homes, people with chronic disabilities who may be adults or seniors, or people with dementia and related aged illnesses. Typically, there are no more than six residents, and there is at least one trained caregiver there 24 hours a day. In some early "model programs", a house manager, night manager, weekend activity coordinator, and four part-time skill teachers were reported. Originally, the term group home referred to homes of 8 to 16 individuals, which was a state-mandated size during deinstitutionalization. Residential nursing facilities, also included in this article, may be as large as 100 individuals in 2015, which is no longer the case in fields such as intellectual and developmental disabilities. Depending on the severity of the condition requiring one to need to live in a group home, some clients are able to attend day programs and most clients are able to live normal lifestyles.
Atria Management Company, LLC (AMC) is a subsidiary of Atria Senior Living, Inc. (ASL). Along with another subsidiary of ASL, Atria Management Company manages independent living, assisted living, supportive living, and memory care communities in more than 344 locations in 44 states. In Canada, ASL subsidiary Atria Management Canada, ULC manages 29 Atria Retirement communities in seven Canadian provinces. Collectively, Atria communities are the residence of choice for approximately 40,000 senior adults and the company employs more than 14,000 staff. Atria is based in Louisville, Kentucky.
Vi Senior Living is a high-end retirement community developer, owner, and management group based out of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Vi maintains 10 continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) in six states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, and South Carolina. Founded in 1987 by Penny Pritzker, the privately held company houses over 4,000 residents and employs 2,700 workers as of May 2016.
Brookdale Senior Living Solutions owns and operates retirement homes across the United States. The company was established in 1978 and is based in Brentwood, Tennessee. It is the largest operator of senior housing in the United States, with over 60,000 residents.
Emeritus Corporation doing business as Emeritus Senior Living was a provider of independent living, assisted living, Alzheimer's care, and skilled nursing for seniors living in Emeritus communities throughout the United States. The company was founded in 1993, and was acquired by Brookdale Senior Living in July 2014 after a $23 million punitive damages award against it in a civil lawsuit in 2013.
A continuing care retirement community (CCRC), sometimes known as a life plan community, is a type of retirement community in the U.S. where a continuum of aging care needs—from independent living, assisted living, and skilled nursing care—can all be met within the community. These various levels of shelter and care may be housed on different floors or wings of a single high-rise building or in physically adjacent buildings, such as garden apartments, cottages, duplexes, mid- and low-rise buildings, or spread out in a campus setting. The emphasis of the CCRC model is to enable residents to avoid having to move, except to another level of care within the community, if their needs change.
SCAN Health Plan (SCAN) is a not-for-profit, Medicare Advantage based in Long Beach, California. Founded in 1977, SCAN provides healthcare coverage to Medicare beneficiaries in California, Arizona, Texas and Nevada, currently serving more than 285,000 members. It is one of the largest not-for-profit Medicare Advantage plans in the country. SCAN Health Plan is part of SCAN Group, a mission-driven organization that is tackling some of the biggest issues in health-care for older adults. In 2022, SCAN and CareOregon announced their intention to combine and form a non-profit healthcare organization under the name HealthRight Group.
Erickson Senior Living is an owner, manager and developer of retirement communities in the United States. It provides independent living, assisted living, memory and skilled nursing care, managing 20 campus-style retirement communities in 11 states. Headquartered in Catonsville, Maryland, it employs 14,000 people for 24,000 residents as of 2017.
Independent senior living communities are housing designed for seniors 55 and older.
Allity is an accredited Residential Aged Care Provider founded in March 2013 with 45 locations in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The homes offer all levels of permanent and respite care allowing for aging in place as well as providing secure dementia facilities.
As of 2017, approximately 1.4 million Americans live in a nursing home, two-thirds of whom rely on Medicaid to pay for their care. Residential nursing facilities receive Medicaid federal funding and approvals through a state health department. These facilities may be overseen by various types of state agency.
Diane G. Cook is a Parkinson’s disease patient advocate, especially well known for the use of the science of self-efficacy to help newly diagnosed patients with Parkinson’s. She accomplishes this through her roles as a senior patient advocate for the ProjectSpark Foundation. Cook also is a present and past clinical investigator on a number of clinical trials, and a speaker, writer and presenter at numerous local, state, national, and international forums focused on Parkinson’s. She was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2008.
Virginia H. Fraser was an American activist for human rights, women's rights, and elder rights. She was the Long-Term Care Ombudsman for the state of Colorado for more than two decades. She co-wrote several works on nursing home care and eldercare. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2002.
